UK

Keir Starmer says Diane Abbott can run as a Labour candidate

Veteran MP ‘free to go forward’ as a candidate for UK opposition party after dispute over her suspension

Protestors gather outside Hackney Town Hall in support of Diane Abbott in London, England. Photograph: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images
Protestors gather outside Hackney Town Hall in support of Diane Abbott in London, England. Photograph: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images
Lucy Fisher in London
Fri May 31 2024 - 19:39

Diane Abbott can stand for Labour in Britain’s general election on July 4th general election, Keir Starmer has said in a bid to end a dispute over an alleged purge of leftwing candidates that has overshadowed the start of his election campaign.

The Labour leader made the announcement on Friday just hours after insisting at an event in Scotland that “no decision has been taken to bar her from standing” and that the party’s ruling national executive committee would “come to a decision in due course”.

He later told reporters: “The whip has obviously been restored to her now and she is free to go forward as a Labour candidate.”

Mr Starmer praised the Labour veteran, who became Britain’s first woman black MP when she was elected in 1987, as a “trailblazer” who had “carved a path for other people to come into politics and public life”.

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He said he had last spoken to Ms Abbott, who served as shadow home secretary under hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn, “a few weeks ago, maybe a few months ago” in the House Commons.

Ms Abbott was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party last year after suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experienced only “prejudice” rather than racism. She had been sitting as an independent MP since the remarks until the Labour whip was restored this week.

However, despite regaining the whip, Ms Abbott accused Labour of wanting to “exclude” her and said she had been barred from standing as a candidate for the party in Hackney North and Stoke Newington on July 4th.

Mr Starmer’s intervention came after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar joined Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner and trade unions in saying Ms Abbott should be allowed to run for the party in her long-held seat, in a dent to his authority.

Leading black figures across entertainment, academia and literature also hit out at the “disrespectful” treatment of Ms Abbott and warned that Labour risked ceding the backing of the party’s most loyal supporters, in a letter to the Guardian.

Earlier on Friday Peter Kyle, shadow science and technology secretary, sought to focus attention on how question marks over Ms Abbott’s future first emerged. “We are responding to a situation that Diane herself got herself in to,” he told Times Radio.

You come at the queen, you better not miss. Diane Abbott has been bullied and abused her whole career. Starmer tried to force her out. She held firm – and won

—  Momentum, the leftwing campaign group within Labour

He also dismissed allegations that Labour was seeking to “purge” leftwing figures, saying recent contentious decisions were about “raising standards”.

This week the main opposition party withdrew its support from two leftwing candidates: economist Faiza Shaheen and sitting MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle.

Ms Shaheen was blocked from standing for Labour in Chingford and Woodford Green after liking a social media post that referred to an “Israel lobby” that influences policy, for which she apologised this week.

She has engaged lawyers to challenge the party’s decision and accused it of pursuing a “factional agenda” against left-wingers.

Mr Russell-Moyle, regarded as a Corbynite, was suspended over a complaint about his behaviour that he described as “vexatious”. The decision meant he was ineligible to stand as a candidate for the party in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven.

A Labour official said Ms Abbott would be the party’s candidate in her London constituency, and the party’s NEC is expected to support the move when its meets next week to finalise the list of candidates.

Momentum, the leftwing campaign group within Labour, said: “You come at the queen, you better not miss. Diane Abbott has been bullied and abused her whole career. Starmer tried to force her out. She held firm – and won.”

Labour should now reinstate Ms Shaheen as a candidate, it added. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024